BEACH VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK: Kerri Walsh Jennings inspired by loss

Kerri Walsh Jennings officially is back and on the warpath. That was the discovery Saturday not because she won again, but -- gasp -- because she lost.

Jen Kessy and April Ross, rebounding from an earlier than expected exit from the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, rallied from a seven-point deficit in the third game to score an 18-21, 21-17, 16-14 over Walsh Jennings and Whitney Pavlik to reach the final of the inaugural World Series of Beach Volleyball.

Kessy and Ross overcame a 9-2 deficit in the final game to pull it out the victory.

"I would say in this tournament I was waiting for the killer to come out, and that just brought it out. I'm (ticked)," Walsh Jennings said with her characteristic smile belying her competitiveness. "So thank you guys, that lit a fire for sure."

Walsh Jennings, who just gave birth to her third child, had to pull out of the Grand Slam portion of the week-long event with an abdominal injury after committing to play with Pavlik. They teamed for this one and seemingly had things under control before a huge stadium crowd that was implored to make noise by PA announcer Chris McGee.

"That was intense," Ross said. "That's probably, in the States, 100 percent the biggest semifinal I've ever played. The crowd, and how fired up Geeter was, and that was the U.S.'s chance to get in the final, it was really big and it felt Olympic-like and stakes were high."

Ross Kessy, who won Olympic silver in London in 2012, will face Brazilians Taiana Lima and Talita Rocha in today's final.

It will be the last time Kessy and Ross play for their coach of five years, Jeff Conover. And later this summer, Ross and Kessy will split, with Ross joining up with Walsh Jennings.

"It always feels good to not end on a loss," Kessy said. "It's also our last tournament with our coach, who's been with us for five years, and so we want to give him a win at the end. It's kind of a sad day. He's one of my favorite people on the planet."

The show will go on

The two-tournament event at Alamitos Beach featured the first FIVB tournament on American sand in 10 years and there will be a return engagement in 2014, organizer Leonard Armato said.

"We're going to do this again for sure. There's no question," Armato said. "We have a multiyear deal with our title sponsor, Asics, as well as FIVB.

"I think it's been enormously successful. We're not done yet, so I can't comment until the very end, but right now I'm delighted with the result. I think everyone is absolutely thrilled with the staging of the event and the entertainment value."

The tournament play has been joined by daily and nightly musical entertainment, the usual marketing booths and food selection.

It also displayed the fact the FIVB, the world governing body of volleyball, and United States domestic volleyball have had a thaw in their political relationship that has led to the length of time between tournaments in the U.S.Armato convinced NBC to be the main media partner and FIVB president Ary Graca of Brazil turned to Armato, the former AVP commissioner, to get the event rolling. The whole event came together in a fast five months, Armato said."Now there's a beautiful synergy between the FIVB and our organizations," Armato said.